Starship Tactics
Star Trek involves starships fighting each other. A number of standard tactics have developed in various episodes and fan writings. To Wit Ane Hook Used by fast ships with equally heavy battery forward and astern. Like the Klingon hook approach at an oblique angle and turn in to attack, followed by an equally hard attack as you pass them from the rear weapons. A favorite of Ane and Starfleet frigates. Garth Two Step Used against ships with a powerful forward battery. (see Klingon hook) The idea being to keep your ship side to side by dancing with them and never let them cross your tee with the heavy weapons. Gorn Anchor This requires a ship with heavy shields and heavy weapons. At least heavier than your opponent by far. Developed by the Gorn that specialize in ships like that. You lock tractors on your target vessel and pound away. Extremely close range and you can expect a pounding back. Kaufman Retrograde Retreating from an opponent and inviting them to advance into the teeth of your fire as they do so. Used by ships with a tactical maneuver advantage, and a range advantage, but not necessarily a firepower advantage. The idea being to keep your opponent at your ideal weapon range and outside their own. Kirk Feint Playing dead. No one is quite sure why Kirk's name got attached to this maneuver. The basic idea of playing possum to lure a strong opponent into your best fighting position. It might be because Kirk did this so well. Klingon Hook Preferred by fast ships with a heavy forward battery. Approach at an oblique angle offering a knife fight and turn into them (the hook) firing the heavy weapons at close range and quickly moving away. Knife Fight Close in broadside to broadside beam duel. Not a wise idea unless you have the better weapons and shields. LaSaille Feint For use when you are the weaker ship in a fight with several opponents. One must find terrain and have probes. Best used in nebulae and noisy planetary systems. Probes are rigged to ping like your ship, to divide an enemy of numerically superior forces and break down a fight you cannot win into several smaller ones you can. Conversely if the opponent thinks you now have a numerical advantage they might just leave. Picard Maneuver A high speed warp jump on a sublight target. The effect is to give the impression you are in two places at once. Does not work if they A: expect it, and B: their ship is bigger than yours. Praetor’s Fist "Romulan englobment" Fleet maneuver to cut a ship out and isolate it. The idea is to place a single enemy vessel in the middle of several of yours and pound them to submission. It only works if you have more ships and a tactical advantage. Stooge Split Squadron maneuver designed to give the opponent too many targets. Best used by three or more ships. The ships break formation, turn back into each other and move away randomly crossing paths. The idea being to confuse enemy fire control. Triple or Double Scoop Tactic that requires a high rate of fire with photon torpedoes. On a low warp approach the ship will fire three times at ranges that cause the torpedoes to reach the target at the same time. Best used against tactical pigs like war cities or stations that cannot jink. The target is buried in torpedoes overwhelming defenses. The Echelon Can be used in two directions. Used with a group of ships. A lead element engages in a knife fight, then the trailing element concentrates fire on the target. When originally encountered, it was used in a heartless war of attrition mode. Smaller ships lead and the heavy ship was the trailing element. The attacked ship had to choose between destroying the small ships, while the larger ship got free firing opportunities, or engaging with the large unit and letting the smaller ships fire for free. The Federation uses a reverse echelon. The big ship goes in for a broadsides exchange, while the smaller ships hang back and look for targets of opportunity. Requires strong discipline to maintain concentration of fire while your own ship and person are absorbing enemy fire. Category:treknical Category:lexicon